


Light a Candle

by cosmic_llin



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Community - Freeform, Fluff, Gen, Self-Discovery, Traditions, Winter Solstice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 16:25:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16814239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/pseuds/cosmic_llin
Summary: Julie Hubble participates in her first witching ceremony.





	Light a Candle

Even as she walked up the path to the castle, Julie Hubble still wasn’t sure this was a good idea.

She’d been invited last year – apparently all the parents of the students could come if they wanted to, although not all of them did – but Mildred had left it until the last minute to tell her, and she hadn’t been able to get the time off work.

This time, that nice Miss Drill had mentioned it to her in advance, at the Halloween celebrations.

‘You should definitely come,’ she said. ‘You’ll like it.’

‘Won’t I be… I don’t know, out of place?’ Julie had asked. ‘I don’t want to embarrass Mildred…’

‘If I know Mildred, she’ll be thrilled to have you here,’ Miss Drill had said. ‘And anyway, she’s not exactly easily embarrassed.’

And then they’d swapped Mildred stories for a bit, and Julie had promised she’d try to make it. And here she was.

It had been a few weeks now, but she was still having trouble getting her head around this witching family stuff. If she was really honest with herself, she’d always felt a bit different from other people, but she’d reasoned that there were plenty of perfectly ordinary explanations for it. And her great-grandmother, who she barely remembered, had told her certain stories when she was very small, stories that her mother and grandmother had dismissed as nonsense.

But when she’d been summoned to Cackle’s to be told that Mildred might be attending, a part of her hadn’t been surprised.

All of that was a bit different from taking part in a full-on witching ceremony, though. What if she made an idiot of herself?

 _Rubbish_ , said a little voice in her head. _What would Mildred think of that?_ _She dived headfirst into this stuff without caring that she might look silly. How can I do less?_

So Julie took a deep breath, and walked in.

Inside, it was pretty much what she would have expected from a school in last-minute preparation for a big event. Kids running around everywhere, the smaller ones chatting and the older ones going back and forth with messages and armfuls of stuff, other parents loitering and getting in the way, harassed-looking teachers trying to direct operations…

Julie looked around for a hint as to where she should put herself, and found Miss Drill beelining towards her.

‘Miss Hubble!’ she said. ‘Oh, I’m so glad you came! You’re going to enjoy yourself, I promise. Don’t mind all this commotion, it’ll calm down soon. Come with me.’

Julie followed her through the throng to what must be her office, judging by the flying trophies everywhere and the brooms stacked in the corner.

‘I hope you don’t mind me dragging you away before you’ve had a chance to find Mildred,’ said Miss Drill, ‘but I thought we could take five minutes for me to explain a bit more what’s going to happen, so you don’t have to be nervous.’

‘Oh, that’s so kind of you,’ said Julie. ‘I have been feeling a bit… on edge about it.’

‘I can imagine,’ said Miss Drill. ‘It must be a bit of a shock to suddenly learn that you’re a witch.’

‘Oh, I don’t know if I’d call myself a witch…’

‘Well, that’s something for you to think about, I suppose,’ said Miss Drill. ‘But you’re definitely witch enough for this, anyway. All you need to do is light a candle.’

She explained the ceremony, and it did sound simple enough.

‘Of course, this isn’t a _real_ solstice ceremony,’ she said. ‘The grown-up witches will do those with their covens or with their families, on the solstice itself. But it’s nice to do one with the students before they go home for the holidays.’

‘So does that mean it… doesn’t mean anything?’ Julie asked. ‘It doesn’t… do the magic, or whatever?’

‘I mean, it’s a ceremony, not a spell,’ said Miss Drill. ‘It’s less about magic and more about community. But it does raise a certain amount of magical energy which mostly gets absorbed into a blessing for the year ahead. I’m no expert, but it definitely still does _something_ , even if one on the actual solstice might do a bit more. But it’s mostly so the kids can learn about it. Anyway, you’ll see when we get going. In fact’—she looked up at the clock—‘we should probably head over, we’ll be starting soon.’

Over in the great hall, a rough circle was beginning to form. One small segment of it broke up as Julie entered, and Mildred and her friends ran to greet her.

‘Mum! You came!’

‘I said I would, didn’t I?’ Julie said, with a grin.

Mildred hugged her tightly, and Julie ruffled her hair. It was nice to see Mildred looking happier, after all the trouble at Halloween.

‘There’ll be time to chat properly afterwards,’ Miss Drill promised, ‘but for now we need to start forming the circle. Come on, girls. Mildred, I promise I won’t let your mum go home without saying goodbye.’

‘You’re going to do great, Mum, there’s nothing to it,’ said Mildred, squeezing Julie’s hand.

Miss Drill laughed as the girls ran away. ‘You’ve got to love the confidence of second-years,’ she said. ‘They’ve done it all of once and suddenly they’re experts. You really will be fine, though.’

‘I hope so,’ said Julie.

‘I’d stick with you if I could,’ said Miss Drill. ‘But it’s got to go in age order, so I thiiiiink…’ she paused, pondering, ‘yeah, I think you’re near Miss Hardbroom.’ She peered through the crowd, then yelled, ‘Hey! HB!’

Miss Hardbroom came over, a grimace on her face. ‘Miss Drill,’ she said, ‘I’ll thank you not to refer to me by such a…’

‘I know, I know, sorry,’ said Miss Drill. ‘It’s just that Mistress Hubble is in your section. Can you put her in the right place?’

Miss Hardbroom gave Miss Drill an eyeroll and Julie a little nod. ‘Certainly. Come this way.’

‘Good luck,’ Miss Drill mouthed, as Miss Hardbroom led Julie away.

‘You do know what to do?’ Miss Hardbroom asked, after she had asked Julie’s date of birth.

‘Miss Drill filled me in,’ said Julie.

‘Good,’ said Miss Hardbroom. ‘You’ll be next to me, just here.’

‘Oh, great,’ said Julie weakly, but Miss Hardbroom had already flashed across to the other side of the circle to get a clump of students into the right order. Julie just stood where she’d been put, and waved back at Mildred and her friends when they spotted her again.

Miss Bat came around, handing out plain white candles, and she took one, clutching it tightly. Ugh, what if she did something wrong and showed Mildred up?

Miss Hardbroom came back.

‘I see you’ve managed to obtain your candle,’ she observed.

It was hard to tell, but Julie thought maybe she didn’t actually _mean_ to sound that sarcastic.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘All ready to go.’

‘By the way,’ said Miss Hardbroom, ‘what with one thing and another, I don’t think you were ever properly thanked for your role in saving the school at Halloween. We are all most grateful.’

Well _that_ was unexpected.

‘Um… you’re welcome,’ said Julie. ‘In all honesty, I was mostly just thinking of Mildred.’

‘Nevertheless,’ said Miss Hardbroom.

She looked faintly embarrassed to have said anything, so Julie turned and waved at Mildred again, and after another few moments, Miss Bat raised a hand and silence fell. The circle was complete now, going from Miss Bat down through the teachers and parents to the students, around to the youngest girl and then back to Miss Bat again.

The lights in the hall suddenly dimmed, leaving everything in shadow. They waited.

Miss Bat lit her own candle with a wave of her hand, a tiny bright flicker in the gloom, then turned to the teacher beside her to light hers from the glowing wick. Then there were two lights, then three, then four, and as the number of small lights grew, the room brightened, and it became harder to tell where one ended and another began.

The room felt very quiet and still, as if everyone was breathing together. The trail of light curved towards Julie, and suddenly Miss Hardbroom was turning to her, candle in hand, and Julie held up her own candle. The flame danced between the two wicks and then her candle was lit. Miss Hardbroom gave her a tiny smile. Julie smiled back.

Then she turned to light the next candle.

Once her part was done, she held her lit candle and watched the progress of the light around the circle. It reached Mildred, who passed it on with a solemn expression, and soon it had almost returned to Miss Bat. The youngest girl – who was tiny and looked a little frightened – lit her own candle, and then handed it to Miss Bat, who handed her the very first candle in return, and then began a chant.

Julie didn’t understand it, but it was clear that some of the others did, because they joined in. Not everyone, though. Not enough that she felt like a fool for not knowing it. It was enough to listen to the echoing sound, to feel like she was as much a part of this as anyone else, a link in this chain of light, holding it together just as much as all the others.

She looked around the circle at the faces lit by dancing light, and she thought, well, if this was what being a witch was about, perhaps she was starting to understand why Mildred loved it so much.

As the chant came to an end, the candles seemed to glow brighter for a few moments, and Julie half-closed her eyes against the glare. Her candle lifted away from her hands and drifted upwards to join the others, floating above their heads. Some of the younger children gasped.

And then, with no obvious signal, it was over. The candles still floated above them, but chattering broke out and the circle wobbled and then slid apart.

‘So, there you go!’ said Miss Drill, coming over. ‘Your first witching ceremony! What did you think?’

‘I think I liked it,’ said Julie.

‘That’s the spirit!’ said Miss Drill. ‘I hope we’ll see you back again for the next one?’

She wasn’t a witch. Calling herself that didn’t fit. But perhaps she could be part of a witching family, and a witching community.

‘You know what?’ said Julie. ‘You just might.’


End file.
